Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Restful Burden

Episode Date: December 14, 2022

We’re looking at one of the more well-known parts of Matthew 11. If you’re looking at Christianity, this is a matchless summary. Jesus calls out to those who are burdened and weary, and he gives an invitation to find rest in him. He says, “If you are weary and if you are burdened, you haven’t really yet understood the greatness of what I offer.”  We’re going to look at two things in this passage. First of all, Jesus gives us an analysis: we all have restlessness and we’re all yoked to something. Then he offers to give us certain things in their place instead. He offers himself; he offers himself as the yoke; and he offers himself as rest. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 13, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 1: His Teaching. Scripture: Matthew 11:28-30. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

For many people, trusting Jesus with your life is challenging. Questions immediately arise like, how can I believe in Jesus in light of the sufferings I've experienced in my life? And there's so much suffering and injustice in the world. How can we know He is the One who will make things right both in my life and in the world? Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller continues looking at the Gospels to show us who the real Jesus is and what that means for our lives.

After you listen, please go online to GospelAndLife.com and sign up for our email updates. When you sign up, you'll start receiving our quarterly newsletter with articles from Dr. Keller as well as other great Gospel-centered resources. Subscribe today at GospelOnLife.com. Look at the passage that's printed in your bulletin. We've been going through the chapter of Matthew 11 in these early weeks of the fall and we come to the end of it. It's probably for many many of you it's the only part of Matthew 11 that you may have ever heard before. You probably have heard of this. It's probably, for many, many of you, it's the only part of Matthew 11 that you may have ever heard before. You probably have heard of this.

It's at the very, very end. Why did it take so long to get here? Well, by the way, have you ever noticed that it's very, very rude to walk into, sit down to a beautiful meal and have everything set out there? There's the appetizers, of course, there's the main course that's about to come. There's the salad about to come and say, where's the dessert? I want the dessert. And imagine, you know, coming to see somebody and sitting down and saying, give me the

dessert and eating dessert, I would like a second dessert, please. And you have another. And finally, I like a third dessert. Well, now I'm full, I'm ready to go. Bye. Now, of course, it's a great way, if you're not already diabetic, to become diabetic, I guess. And the interesting thing is going right for the sugar.

Going right for the dessert is a good way, and I know this, of course, sometimes this is what happens when I'm working on a Saturday trying to get my, keep myself alert to in order to prepare for Sunday. Sometimes I know one of the best ways is go find yourself a dessert. You can get a sugar high. It gives you, in the short run, a lot of energy. But as we all know, in the long run, eating a lot of sugar,

eating a lot of dessert is actually one of the worst possible ways to have stamina and energy. Now, what people want to do when they come to say something like Matthew 11, in fact, what people want to do when they come to the New Testament is they want to go right for dessert. They love these kinds of passages, but I'll tell you, if you don't understand who it is saying these things to you, it will be nothing but kind of a sugar high. He says some wonderful things to you here.

He says he shows you his wonderful regard. But if you don't know who it is, if you don't go through the rest of Matthew 11, if you're a guest here and you haven't heard any of those sermons, I'm about to move away from this point. I don't want to make you feel left out in any way. But those of you who have been here for any of the series, and you know that Jesus said some very hard things. Desert is bad for you unless you eat protein and fiber.

In fact, the dessert can work against you. And unless you understand who it is speaking, unless you read all the rest of the first part of it, this really is not going to transform your life at all. But let's look at it. It is wonderful. I tremble in some ways before this passage, because, well, you'll see, come to me," says

the Lord, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble and heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy easy and my burden is light. One commentator said, these are self-authenticating words. One commentator said that nobody could have thought these words up. That these are beyond, in fact, I have the little quote right here, excuse me. These are self-authenticating. They are beyond the invention of any human writer. No one making up words for a divine figure would have either the insight or the daring to say them. And anyone who understands them has come into the very heart of Christianity. The reason I tremble before this sort of thing,

occasionally you come to words like this and you realize what makes them so great is that they are utterly simple and yet absolutely comprehensive. Everything I've ever told you, if you've been around here for a while, anything I've ever told you about Christianity is right here. And you say, why did it take you so long? Why didn't you just come to this text? I don't know, I just got to it. In here, if you are thinking about Christianity, if you're looking at Christianity, this is a matchless summary.

One of the things that you might be surprised at, there are always a significant number of people in this room on every Sunday who rejected the Christianity of their past, rejected the churchy entity of their past, and now for various sorts of reasons, hundreds of reasons are exploring it again, and trying to find out what it really is

and whether it's for me. If you think that you are a kind of a rarity, if you look around and you think everybody else here is a kind of a sure believer and I'm one of these folks that I'm trying to figure out and no, no, no. You're part of a pretty large segment of people here every Sunday. For you, this is matchless. A matchless summary. But for those of you who are assured Christians, I guess I consider

myself one, I guess. When I read this passage this week, especially this morning, I wept because I realized, I'm weary often. And Jesus says, if you are weary and if you are burdened, you haven't really yet understood the greatness of what I offer. This is an invitation. And the best way to break this down is to see that Jesus, first of all, in this invitation, tells us what we already have and then offers us some things instead.

First of all, he gives us an analysis. He tells us what we already have. And then he offers to give us certain things in their place instead. Now, let's just take a look at that. The two things that he says we already have. First of all, he says, we have a restlessness. Now, he says this, and this is very important, I follow me for about 30 seconds here. When you think of this restlessness, there's a tendency to kind of read it

in sort of the modern contemporary terms. We say, yes, we all have a kind of spiritual longing. All human beings have this sort of religious, the sort of spiritual longing. Jesus is talking about something a lot more specific than that. The burden in the New Testament, when Jesus spoke about it. In fact, even when the when Jesus spoke about it, in fact, even when the Apostle spoke about it, had a very much more specific and particular cast to it.

Jesus says, for example, in Matthew 23, he says, the teachers of the law tie heavy burdens and loads and put them on our shoulders, but they cannot practice what they preach. And Peter, later on in Church history in Acts chapter 15, he says this, he says, now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? No, no. We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved. Now what I'm pointing out is Jesus has something in mind here.

When he talks about a burden, and when he talks about a restlessness, when he talks about a spiritual weariness, he talks about a spiritual sleeplessness. He's talking about something very specific. Sleeplessness. Now, you know, the scientists will tell you that it's not the length of sleep,

but the depth of sleep that you need for real refreshment. It's REM sleep, right? Rapid eye movement sleep. And you may actually sort of sleep fitfully for hours and hours, but if you don't get that deep sleep, you will find yourself not being alert, moving through life in a fog. You need deep sleep. Jesus Christ says that there is a spiritual REM. There is a deep rest. There is a deep poise, a deep calm of conscience and of heart and of soul, and you don't have

it, as we say. And the reason you don't have it is not just the reason you don't have it, as we say. And the reason you don't have it is not just, the reason you don't have it, it's not just that you have a kind of general spiritual longing, but he says it's because you experience the weariness of having to prove yourself because you're all under the weight and the burden of the law. Now, right away you say, well, maybe back in that context,

especially when I put this up next to Matthew 23, where Jesus says, you tie weights around, the teachers of the law, tie weights, and you say, well, religious people, especially back then, it's true they were burdened down with the law. That's not true of me. In fact, there might be people here today who say, I don't even know if I believe in a divine law.

But Jesus, clearly, these words are timeless words. It is very clear that when Jesus says all, he means all. He means all people, all times, all places. And therefore, I think what this passage is saying is that whether you believe in the divine law or not, there is a weariness in all of us. And it all comes because we have an archetypal, primordial consciousness of the divine law.

We know that we should be honest, we know that we should be unselfish, we know that we should be loving, we know we should love our neighbors that ourselves, we know these things. You see, you may not call that divine law, but you know it. And Jesus says, with perfectionists and workaholics,

it's on the surface. With the rest of us, it sleeps deep, but it's there. We know that we should be perfect. We know that we're not living up, and we are finding ways to prove ourselves. And because we're always weary because we're trying to prove ourselves. There's this deep restlessness, this spiritual sleeplessness. Look, look, look, friends listen.

What he's trying to say is that this restlessness is a restlessness of guilt and of anxiety. It's a restlessness that comes from needing to prove yourself. And he says it comes from a priori-mortial knowledge we all have, and therefore everybody, whether you're religious or non-religious, whether you're Jewish or Gentile, no matter who you are, there is this weirdness and this burdensomeness. This is the reason why religious people in the church are always fighting. Why churches are such nasty places to be.

Why people are so sensitive. Why people are so critical of each other. And this is also the reason why people outside of the church, unreligious people, are always running off to the counselors, saying, my parents, my peer group, the church I went to back home, I feel the restlessness. I just feel like I'm never living up.

I always feel like I have to prove myself. What is that? You see whether it has a religious form, an era, a religious form, the touchiness, the weirdness. Jesus says, all of you have it. Every one of you have it. We're all weary. Do you see what we're getting at?

Okay, but now he not only says that there's all a weariness that we all have, but, and this isn't easy to see the first time you read it. He doesn't just say we have that. He also says you're already yoked. You see, you don't notice that right away, but you see in the beginning he says come to me, all you who are weary and burdened.

So we all know we're burdened, and we're all in a sense of we're all restless, we're all sleepless. We've all got this problem. But then he says, take my yoke upon you. He doesn't really mean that you don't have a yoke. Now take on a yoke. He says, take my yoke upon you. And that means you've already got one.

Now the thing you must realize, have you ever seen Yokes? I would say almost everybody in this room, the only way you ever, ever see Yokes, is by going into old hotels, bed and breakfasts, and restaurants. You have to find a restaurant that has, that's trying to create a farmer's ambiance or country ambiance or something, and then you'll find a Yoke. That's how you see them. And when Jesus says you're already yoked, you need a new yoke.

He's really saying something profound, and he's also giving us another aspect of his teaching. We all know that a yoke was a great big beam, you know, it's a very long beam across it, and there would be two metal rings, very big rings. And you put the beast of burden, you put the horse, you put the ox, you put the person. Underneath that.

But you see what's interesting about a yoke. A yoke doesn't just burden you by yoking you to the yoke. A yoke also yokes you to somebody else or something else. There's something else there that's trying to pull the cart. There's something else there that you have relied on, in a sense, to pull the cart because you're so weary. And those of you who were in the, that were

happened to be here at the open forum last month, not most of you weren't, but just so you can make a connection to this. When Stephen Covey says, what is your true North? Which I think is a wonderful phrase. What is your true North? He says, what is your personal center? What is your true North? What is the thing that you really live for?

What he's talking about is, what are you yoked to, to deal with your restlessness, to deal with that sense that you haven't lived up to deal with, that need to prove yourself. We're all yoked to something. And what he says is what Jesus actually says, and that is, whatever you have yoked yourself to, you can't get away from. You're enslaved to it. You're bound to it. Quickly, if you're true North, if you're yoked to your spouse. Now, in some sense, of course, you are. But I'm saying, if the main thing you look for is your spouse, you will destroy your marriage.

Because if the thing you look for is your spouse, that creates emotional dependence, and you destroy the very thing you most want, which is your marriage. If you're true North, if you're the thing you're yoked to, is your children. You'll try to live your life through your children, and they will either run away from you in hatred or else you might actually win, and so they don't even, you rob them of their own selves,

either way you lose the very thing, you destroy the very thing you most want, which is your children. If you live for the approval of people, popular approval, if that's what you live for, kind of people, popular approval, if that's what you live for, kind of like me, if that's the thing you yoke yourself to, I'll be frank here, that means on the one hand

you don't like to give criticism. Because you're afraid of ever upsetting people, but on the other hand, you can't take criticism very well. Because you feel like I'm been disapproving, you know what's so interesting about that? If the thing you most want are strong relationships and approval of people, the best way to destroy any friendships and any relationships

is never give or take criticism well. Anything you yoke yourself to, you destroy, or it destroys you. And what Jesus is saying is imagine, yourself being yoke to something else, pulling this cart. Imagine yourself yoke to a horse. Well, the horse will either kill you, you'll never keep up with a horse, never, never, never. Or else, you see, you'll kill it too because you might get tangled up with it.

Whatever you're yoked to, it's a very interesting phrase. Every commentator I looked at admitted that this is what Jesus is saying here. And that is that a yoke always has another animal in it. And so if you are in the yoke, the other person in the yoke who is pulling and to whom you are looking to deal with that weirdness of soul, the thing you're looking to prove yourself, that thing is almost inevitably gonna destroy you

or maybe you'll destroy it too. Because it's almost inevitably an animal that you can't control. It's going to go faster than you. It's going to be stronger than you. Do you see that? Jesus says, we all have this weiriness, this weiriness of soul. And secondly, he says, we all have something else that we've euked ourselves to in order to deal with that weariness, in order to deal with that restlessness, in order, in a sense to prove ourselves, and yet it doesn't work. We're more burdened, in fact, in many ways, the very thing we yoke ourselves to, that we most love will destroy us and will destroy it.

Forgiving someone who is wronged you can be one of the most difficult things to do in life. In his new book, Forgive, Why Should I and How Can I? Tim Keller shows how the skill and ability to forgive is one of the greatest resources Christianity offers us and, if rightly understood, it is not a hindrance to seeking justice, but a necessary precondition for the pursuit of it. In the book you'll discover how both justice and forgiveness are aspects of love. We'll send you Dr. Keller's new book, Is Our Thanks for Your Gift, to help Gospel

and Life share the love and forgiveness of Christ with more people. Just visit GospelAndLife.com-slashgive. That's GospelAndLife.com-slashgive. Now, here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Now what does the offer in his place come to me? All ye who are labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. He offers you three things. This is what he says. First of all, he says, come to me.

Now the first thing he does is he gives you me. At this point, I'd like to speak to anybody here who wants to know what does it mean to be a Christian. How do I know that Christianity is true? I mean, let's say you call yourself a seeker. Here's your answer. Jesus says come to me. First of all, it's very interesting to know,

and I didn't know this until I studied this time. After all these years of knowing this, I had never saw it before. Jesus is quoting Jeremiah chapter six, verse 16. In Jeremiah 6, 16, the Lord comes and says, follow the path I give you, and I will give you rest for your soul. Thus sayeth the Lord, and says, follow the path I give you, and I will give you rest for your soul. Thus, say, at the Lord, do this,

and I will give you rest for your souls. Here's Jesus that turns around and says, come unto me, and I will give you rest for your souls. What does that mean? That he quotes it? Well, one thing, of course, it means that Jesus Christ was so saturated with the Word of God. He understood the Scripture so much.

It was so much his heartbeat, his lifeblood, that he couldn't, he was always alluding. He was always referring. That's another sermon. But what he really is saying is he has the audacity to take something that God said in the Old Testament and not when he restates and say, thus say, the Lord, but I say unto you, come to me, I will give you rest. People sometimes say to me, where does it sayeth the Lord, but I say unto you, come to me, I will give you rest. People sometimes say to me, where does it say in the Bible that Jesus Christ, where does Jesus Christ claim to be God? I want you to know it is suffused.

Jesus claims in consciousness of divinity suffuses everything he says. He's right here doing it. But now, when somebody says, how do I know this Christianity is true, I'm reminded of a person who I've read about recently. It was a skeptic, and this is what he said. He says, I would love to believe in God if I could. I would love to believe in God if I could. I'm waiting for a watertight argument. In fact, if I can find the quote, he says, I'm looking all around. Where does he say it? Yes. He says, I'd love to believe in God. It just isn't possible. I'd like to, but if someone would bring an airtight argument,

I'm sorry, not watertight, an airtight argument, then I'd be delighted to believe. Now, what does Jesus say to that here? Here's what He says to that. Somebody may disagree with me when I say, I don't think God has given us an airtight argument, but he has sent us an airtight person. And that airtight person is the airtight argument. Jesus Christ does not say, come to this set of reasoning. He says, come to me. Come to me. If you do that, if you look at him, if you look and compare his claims to his life, compare

his life to his teaching, compare his teaching to his interactions with people. Take a look at it. It is an inexplicable life. It is an overwhelming life. It is an airtight argument. You will see God there. If somebody says, how do I know Christian is true? I dare you to do a very, very, a thing that by the way, he's not, he's not pitting this against thinking. Jesus is not saying,

don't think, don't reason, come to me. He's not saying that. Uh-uh. Use your thought and read the book of Mark. Go to a Bible study. We have lots of them around here. Go to a Bible study and spend the next five or six or seven or eight months just seeing what Jesus actually says, just seeing what He actually does. In other words, come to Him. And I tell you, if you use your brain, if you do your thinking, you will find Him the the airtight argument. God didn't send us an airtight argument. He sent us an airtight person. And if you wait for an airtight argument before you come to him and look at him and deal with him, you will wait forever because he is the airtight argument. He says, come to me, not come to that.

Time and time again, I have seen people with deep skepticism, very thoughtful people, not emotional people, not actually in any kind of emotional need, actually come and start looking at that and say, this is inexplicable. You'll find all sorts of self-authenticating statements. You'll say, this couldn't have been made up. This is very odd. How could this be? Look at what he says.

He never makes his false step. He never says a false word. He's the airtight argument. Come to me. This is, see, this is matchless. He says, come to me and you will receive the revelation. You will see it. That's the reason why just a verse before he's able to say that he says, I thank you a father

that you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed it under little children. That's not a way of saying that intellectuals stay out. Uneducated ignorant people come in. What is he saying? He is saying that the argument that God has given, the way in which God has shown you that he exists, the way God has shown you, the truth, is a way that even the uneducated and the ignorant can see, but the wise and learned can see too, if they're not wise in their own eyes. You see this? Come to me. So the first thing he offers is me, a person. That's who God sends. That's it. Don't wait for an

airtight argument. He is the airtight argument. Secondly, he offers himself, but, second point, he offers himself as the yoke. He offers himself as the burden. Now, again, if you look at it carefully, and I started it carefully, and the commentators say the same thing, when he says come to me, and then he says, take upon you my yoke and burden, he's saying, I am the yoke, I am the burden. What he is actually saying is not, I have come to you and now I'll show you the right way to go. He says, no, take upon yourself me. And this is the heart of Christianity.

This is it. The heart of Christianity is you cannot possibly prove yourself because you cannot possibly do the things that deepen your heart. You know you ought to do. Jesus is the true human being. Jesus is the righteousness of God. He has come and He has done it. And that's the reason why when He says,

make me the burden, make me the yoke, make me the way you prove yourself. That's what Paul means when he says in 1 Corinthians 1, it's so, so important. He says, therefore, it is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us, our wisdom, our righteousness, our holiness, and our redemption. Therefore, as it is written, let him who boasts, boasts in the Lord. What does it mean to be a Christian? It means to take on Jesus as the yoke.

It means to take on Jesus as the burden, to say, this is how I prove myself. Now, let me get down to brass text with Christians and anybody who's here. Why are you weary? Look, I know one of the reasons I'm weary. My wife knows why I'm weary. I overcommit. Why do I overcommit? Why am you weary? Look, I know one of the reasons I'm weary. My wife knows why I'm weary. I overcommit.

Why do I overcommit? Why am I weary? Because I'm trying to prove myself, because I'm forgetting the greatness of what God has given here. The greatness of what Jesus has given here. You get weary if you forget this. He says, I can't give you rest. You don't have to prove yourself

by agreeing to everything anybody ever asked you. Now, on a lot of you like that, a lot of you are overworked because you're overcomming it, why are you overcomming it? You're trying to prove yourself, you see? Because you haven't really laid your burden down and put Jesus as your new burden. How do you know who you are? How do you know what you are? How do you know what you are? If you try to make anything else, your wisdom, your righteousness, your sanctification,

your redemption, you will be always weary. Some of you are very weary because you're working too hard, because you have given yourself to your career. Why? Why are you working so hard? Why have you got no rest? Why have you got this weariness? Don't you see?

You don't just need to scale back a little bit. You don't just need to read the self-help books and say, well, you know no rest? Why have you got this weariness? Don't you see? You don't just need to scale back a little bit. You don't just need to read the self-help books and say, well, you know, you need to have balance in your life. Jesus says, you've got to put me on. You're trying to prove yourself. That's the reason you have this deep lack of sleep, the spiritual sleeplessness. You're trying to prove yourself through your work. Friends, whatever is bugging you, whatever is bothering, whatever is booking you, whatever is bothering you,

whatever is draining you, whatever is making you unbelievably tired in soul today, it's because you're yoked to something besides Jesus' period. There it is. And that's the reason why becoming a Christian does not primarily laying down your sins, no. Of course, that's part of it. But primarily becoming a Christian is laying down your doing? No. Of course that's part of it. But primarily becoming a Christian is laying down your doing. That's why with that wonderful hymn which I can't find anywhere, I've never sung it. I just have heard it quoted. And I've thought about it for years. Every time I think about it, it puts glory in my soul. And that's that great line. This is, lay your deadly doing down, down at Jesus' feet, stand in Him in Him alone, gloriously complete.

Well, you're deadly doing down, and you'll have rest for your souls. Put my yoke on you. I'm the only yoke. I'm the only burden that is light. I'm the only one that if you get in harness with, will not relentlessly, unforgivingly drive you into the ground. Why? Because I'm the only yolk fellow that's humble and gentle. I forgive. I cover. If you try to prove yourself with your work, if you try to prove yourself with your relationships, you try to prove yourself with anything else. You say, I think I've heard this before, of course, this is the heart of Christianity. When you understand this, you're all the way in. There's one last thing to say. And this is particular to Christians.

You can't do verse 28 without verse 29. Verse 28 says, come to me and I will give you rest. We say, yeah, coming. But you know what? As soon as you come to them, you get the yoke. And even though it's a light yoke, even though it's an easy yoke, even though it's the only yoke that won't destroy you, it's still a yoke.

And he says, you must learn of me. That means there is no coming to Christ without discipleship. You can't have verse 28 without 29. You can't come to him and then not put yourself in harness and say, every day, every hour, I have to look next door at my yoke fellow. And I have to look at His gentleness. Now, you know His gentleness means His calmness.

And I have to look at His humility. I have to look at this incredible poise of soul that He has and I have to learn of Him. But you know, that means listening to Him all the time. It means letting him teach you. It does mean studying your Bible. It does mean examining your life. It does mean every time you see yourself not being gentle, but being restless, not being

humble, but being proud, being fearful. It means you're constantly having to bring everything in line with him. It means there's no such thing as coming to Christ without discipleship. It's a lifelong learning. You have to get in harness. You're not a, you can't be a consumer. You can't just simply come and get rest on Sunday and then all during the rest of the week,

not put the yoke on. And lots of people want to do that. That's, our culture actually says that. Pick and choose, find what you want. Oh no. See, it's all in here. Will you please get serious? Have any of you come, but not really learned?

In other words, have you come, but you haven't gotten serious about discipleship? I don't think you've come. I'm not sure you've heard. I'm not sure you've, I don't know that you've gotten the rest. You may have gotten a sugar high, so you can come. And just in a sense and just say, I feel guilty today.

And you come into church and you hear some minister and you take it out of context because you could certainly do it with me. And say, oh, if I just sort of give myself to the Lord, Lord is a God of grace and He loves me, He forgives me. I shouldn't feel so bad about what I did this week. That's a sugar high. In the beginning, it feels fine.

In the long run, it'll wipe you out. What have you got to do? You've got to see it. You're not just saying, Lord, forgive me. You're laying down, you're doing, having a whole new approach to yourself and everything around yourself. And then you take on his yoke and you learn of him and you become a lifelong disciple, a lifelong learner, every

day seeking to hear what he has to say, reading about him, studying him, reflecting, looking at his gentleness and his humility and saying, Lord, I want to learn from you. Come to me, all ye who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I, and only I, and gentle and humble of heart. And then you'll find rest for your souls. Let's pray. Our Father, we know that our weariness comes from refusing to lay down our doing.

Our weariness comes from yoking ourselves to things through which we try to prove ourselves. We see that our weariness comes from refusing the only burden and only yoke that's light and freedom. The applications of this are infinite. For a person just thinking about what it means to be a Christian and for a person who's been at this for many, many years, this text is life itself. And I pray that you would make it life and make it a living text to everybody in this room. I pray over the next couple of minutes as we meditate and think that you would start to show us how our weariness really is a soul weariness, it's much deeper than we thought.

It's maybe in many cases deeper than physical and deeper than psychological, it's spiritual and how you and you alone can heal it. Show us, we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to Gospel and Life and Dr. Keller's teaching. You can find more Gospel-centered content like today's teaching when you connect with Gospel and Life on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or Twitter. This month's sermons were recorded in 1996.

The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.